Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

[jake1985]

Hello,

It is my first post here, and I hope I will find some help about this matter.

I have this washing machine Bosch WVG30461GB, which started acting up a while back. So I’d click on the start button, after having selected the program, the door would click once and then click again, the machine would beep twice, the lock icon won’t come on and the machine won’t start.

It used to be intermittent, and in the instances where it didn’t start, retrying a few times usually got it working again.

About a week ago the issue became permanent, no matter how much I retry the issue persists.

After having checked the obvious things, including no blockages or anything stuck in the pump. I looked a lot on the internet, and it seems most answers pointed towards the interlock being the faulty part, I took it out, bought a new one and installed it, but nothing changed the issue is still the exact same.

An additional thing I did actually try, is I took the old interlock, opened it, removed the locking mechanism from it (the mechanical tongue that locks the door), and then I forced the solenoid in the locked position, low and behold the machine starts, most of the time, sometimes it still doesn’t but retrying a couple of times usually works. obviously this is not very safe as the door can be opened at any time.

The last test I did is I started disconnecting the different parts of the machine one by one thinking that if there was a short circuit somewhere this might help me find it, but none of this helped, every time I disconnected something and tried it did the same exact thing. except a couple sensors that when disconnected didn’t allow me to click the start button in the first place.

So here I am super confused about what the issue might be. Sorry about the long post, but I thought the more information I give the better you would be able to diagnose and hopefully shed some light on what might be going on.

I thank you all in advance.

Regards.

[1totalshambles]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Hazzard a guess and considering the money that is involved do not rely on what follows. What follows is based on Bosch washer dryer WVG30461GB/01, you did not say which version ( 01 ) you have.
Suspect the fault lies with the rear r/h/side pcboard as looking from the rear of the machine which is the motor module and ( since your motor is one of those induction brushless motors ) I`d have a look there next. If you see any blown tracks tread very carefully as something else may well have caused it and with luck it`ll be your old door lock that shorted it out, there again you might get unlucky and see nothing but it could still be that board BUT then it might not be!. That pcb list price is £156.35. If you buy that or any other pcb and it blows your £156.35 down and you will not get your money back from your supplier. If you buy a pcb and fit the thing and it does not cure the fault …..ditto!
If you end up pulling your hair out pay and call out Bosch and let them sort it out, they can afford the losses if they goof up you and a one man and his van repairer cannot, the latter most certainly would not. One other possibility is a slight earth fault from the tumble dryer or / and wash elements and so it back feeds and messes temporarily the pcb/s try, if you haven`t already, disconnecting the wires and retrying; doubt you`ll have a megger tester to test the elements for any earth leakage. Welcome to the 21st Century everyone: an ever increasing amount of this mid to upper range stuff is, basically, not very reliable ( I`m being as polite as possible! ) contrary to popular belief and hype based on Bosch machines, for example, of the past where many were fairly simple but well made and had predictable and well known ocassional faults.

[jake1985]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Thank you very much for your time and the reply. You are bang on, it is indeed the 01 model.

I had a look at the left hand side PCB, haven’t had a look at the right hand side one, because as you said it is the motor control board and in my mind the motor is working properly, I didn’t realize it could have that effect on the rest of the system. I will definitely check it out during the week end.

When you say disconnect the wires? which ones do you mean? as I had disconnected the different parts of the machine one by one to see if anything would change, and it didn’t as far as I know. or did you mean the earth wires?

The thing that is confusing me the most is that when I force the interlock to think it is locked, most of the time (as I have to try a few times every time I want to run it) the machine runs normally. without that override it never runs.

My last question is: when the interlock clicks twice, is it locking and then detecting a fault somewhere so it unlocks, hence the second click. or does it attempt a first time to lock, detects that it didn’t manage to do that and then tries to lock again hence the second click?

You’re right, if this week end I couldn’t solve it, the next step would be to call bosch in, let them fix it and try to understand from them what the problem was.

Regards

[Martin]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

It’s apparent here from reading this tale that the problem is not associated with the electronic circuit boards. More often than not is an earth leak on the dryer element or wash element (as has been mentioned). Using an insulation tester (aka Megger) on each element would be the ideal tool to check for faults there.

The fact that when you override the interlock and it operates normally is a big clue I reckon. 😉

[jake1985]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Hello again, just to give you an update. so I went ahead and worked on it a bit more this last week end, the problem persisted if I had disconnected the motor board completely, but then I worked a bit on the control board, disconnecting cables, testing, trying to clean plugs (they weren’t dirty or anything, just though it might be a lose plug or smtg). reassembled everything and low and behold everything works as expected. we did a few washes and 2 days later the same problem is back!! so I redid similar manipulations to what I had done the previous time, but this time there is no luck I can’t get it to work again, I thought of doing a reset but couldn’t find the procedure for it, and thought of running the test programs but I couldn’t find their descriptions anywhere, and it seems most of them don’t run because of the existing problem (as the machine can’t lock properly)
So at the end, I called up bosch and they are going to come over and have a look. I will let you know what it turns out to be.

[timdowning]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Did you disconnect the dryer heater as directed?
If not do so, leave it disconnected & try a wash cycle.

[jake1985]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Hello John, I did indeed disconnect that (or at least I think I did, isn’t it the multiple plugs going into the kind of nozzle going out of the dryer blower?), and the result was still the same.

[Martin]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

No it’s the wires that connect to each heater terminal. The heater is enclosed in the long metal box on top of the drum. (See previous post in the subject 😉 )

[jake1985]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Oh yes these are the ones I meant, sry I called it nozzle as I didn’t know the proper name, but yes it is the wires going into the metal conduit above the drum.

[jake1985]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Hello Again,
So the problem turned out to be the main control board. The guy didn’t do any tests, he said he’s seen this same problem before, just got there took out the board put in a new one and bob is your uncle.
Since the machine is still pretty new, bosch provided the parts for free, and I only had to pay the callout fee of 95£. So it wasn’t bad after all.
He suggested it might be one of the relays misbehaving on the old pcb, I went ahead and tested all the relays one by one, all seem to be working fine. When I find a bit more time I will play with that pcb a bit more, to see if I can discover what was causing the issue, it is a fun exercise, but there is a lot of super tiny smd components on that board, so it might not be that easy to figure things out…maybe I can serial connect to it,a nd see if it is spitting out any errors on a serial monitor…

[Simon46]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Thanks for the info.

[1totalshambles]

Re: Bosch WVG30461GB won’t lock and start

Great you got it fixed! And I was wrong about which board had come a cropper, learn something every day. Must admit all fair play to Bosch that you got a freebee replacement pcb. Sometimes getting the manufacturers in can work out very well.

[Author]

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